Ok folks, the wife and I bought a new home in upstate NY and the move takes place Friday. The new connection will not be available until Monday so I hope to get everything back online by Tuesday the 15th.

We have quite a bit to do, so bear with me if it takes a little while. The site will down sometime Friday.

I have finally gone and put it all together into a book! I took most of the recipes I have posted up until about November of 2007 and put them in print. My original inspiration was to give the book out as Christmas gifts for those in my family who also enjoy cooking. I received such positive feedback from it, that I decided I might as well put it up on the site for anyone to get if they wish. You have to forgive me for waiting until after Christmas to post this, but most of the gifts were surprises, so I didn’t want to give it away.

Some of the recipes have been updated and most of them contain stories on how the recipes came to be, or what inspired me to create them, or even funny events surrounding them.

The book took me quite some time to put it all together as I did it myself. I had no idea of the worth of an editor and publisher until I did this. I see now why people have them. It is quite a bit of work doing all of the arranging and proofreading; not to mention getting the layout and artwork right. I have found a couple mistakes but nothing too major (I have seen worse in professional cookbooks).

Bon Appetit magazine recently took a reader survey and when asked who their favorite T.V. chef was, Giada de Laurentiis won. Not only that, she was also picked as the cooking teacher most would prefer to spend a week with.

This I can completely understand. I have tried many of her recipes and by far, I enjoy them more than any other I have tried from other T.V. chefs. Most of her recipes have an Italian twist to them.

One of my favorites is her pancetta wrapped pork roast. We eat this at least twice a month in my house. What is really nice about her recipes is not that they are brand new creations. Most are familiar recipes we have seen in the past, but she has adjusted them so subtly, yet so dramatically, your blown away by the results. Of course, this is what good cooks do. They take a recipe, and change it to their tastes, and come out with a new creation.

I recently cooked for a super bowl party, and I used one of Giada’s steak sandwhich recipes that I adjusted quite a bit and it went quicker than any other food presented at the party. I will be posting this soon, but I would have never gotten there if Giada hadn’t introduced her method and special tastes. This chef is making us all look good. 🙂